I was driving down the road and started hearing a sound like my tires were rubbing. I pulled over and jacked the car up to check for rubbing and there was nothing, but when I grabbed the tire (wheel bolted on) the rotor and wheel moved from side to side. Figured okay wheel bearings are bad. I went and bought all I needed to replace it and just went to start the install. When I took the codder pin off the axle, I noticed that my axle nut was LOOSE. I could turn it by hand without loosening it with the 32mm. I tightened it on and took a drive around the block, what do you know the sound is gone and the rotor/wheel does not move at all when bolted on.

What I am wondering is...Does the axle nut get loosened because of a bad wheel bearing or could it just have loosened by itself? Basically I just want to know if now that my axle nut is tight and the car rides good, Do I still need to replace my wheel bearings?

Thanks!

 

Damn no ideas?

 

Isn't there a cotter pin that is suppose to hold the nut in place?

 

The cotter pin is at the end of the threads. The nut backed out to just about finger tight but was still nowhere near the cotter pin.

UPDATE:Been driving for a couple days now and it started making new noise that comes and goes it seems like. Jacked the car up and rotor doesnt move with the wheel bolted to it hmmm idk

 

The torque specification for the front axle nut is 170.

My experience is that once you drive the car with that nut loose, the bearing is trash.

 

I found the same exact problem with my car yesterday. It was my rear driverside wheel/hub nut. And yes there is a cotter pin there, only to prevent the nut comming completely off, not lose. Mine was only finger tight, and messsed up my rotor a lil bit.

The sound has subsided, and there is no more lateral movement of my tire when I jack it up. But i'm still a lil worried to drive fast. Last thing I need is for my wheel to fall off at 120mph.

Furthermore, shouldn't this be a factory responsibility? Recall perhaps? I don't feel one bit that I should be responsible for this.

Long story short, I used an impact gun to tighten the nut and put some loctight on the threads. Now, i'm going to have to do this to all of them.

Haven't decided yet whether to replace the bearing.

ATTENTION EVERYBODY: Check your wheel bearings and the main hub nut! I say loctight them all!

 

Scarey thought to have a wheel break loose at high speeds, I will have to check mine for sure!!!